


Storming the Castle

by Theroonco



Series: Persona 5 Royal: The Return And Beyond [2]
Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Child Death, Future Fic, Original Character Death(s), Past Character Death, Persona 5 Spoilers, Persona 5: The Royal Spoilers, Post-Persona 5, Post-Persona 5: The Royal, References to Depression, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-13
Updated: 2021-01-13
Packaged: 2021-03-18 01:47:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 18,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28735209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Theroonco/pseuds/Theroonco
Summary: [FULL SPOILERS FOR PERSONA 5 ROYAL] [TRIGGER WARNINGS: Mentions of death and depression, some mild gore.]Two newcomers to the Metaverse make their way through their first Palace. Written forShusumi Week. Technically a continuation of Return, but you don't need to have read that to understand this.
Relationships: Amamiya Ren/Yoshizawa Sumire | Yoshizawa Kasumi, Kurusu Akira/Yoshizawa Sumire | Yoshizawa Kasumi, Persona 5 Protagonist/Yoshizawa Sumire | Yoshizawa Kasumi
Series: Persona 5 Royal: The Return And Beyond [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2106654
Comments: 8
Kudos: 17
Collections: Shusumi/ Sumiren Week 2021





	Storming the Castle

Explosions rung out one after another, making the air tremble and the many chandeliers above them shake, their crystal ornaments breaking off one after the other - _Snap! Snap! Snap!_ \- and smashing against the thick carpet below.

"Hey, that's a lotta bad luck, y'know!" cried a blonde girl, turning back at the small sounds. A flash of motion caught the corner of her eye and she whipped her head around just in time to jump over the swipe of a baton wielded by a lanky guard. She jeered at him as she ran past, one side of her open leather jacket slapping his face as she went.

" _That's_ what you're worried about right now?!" The exasperated cry came from the slightly younger girl running ahead of her, her black ponytail disappearing against the back of her dark suit as she vaulted over a handrail, skipping the small flight of steps winding to their right so she could continue running straight. The blonde followed suit, rolling as she landed to continue her own sprint. Another movement, this time from above, drew her attention to the rafters.

"Up there!"

"Already on it!"

The girl in black skidded to a halt and pressed her hand to her face. Her partner stopped behind her and saw blue flames burst from beneath her palm, licking their way around the sides of her head before being extinguished with a _woosh_ as a spiral of strong winds blasted into existence around her. But just as quickly as they appeared the blue-tinted gales vanished, leaving an almost divine figure floating above them - a tall, feminine form draped in a shining white gown.

Without even looking at the rafters that had been pointed out to her the girl in black raised her hand and snapped her fingers. The white woman raised both of hers up, cupping her palms together. A small white orb formed between them, then swelled to the size of a soccer ball before launching itself up just as the first of the guards that had run to intercept them jumped down, catching him square in the chest and detonating. A second series of blasts echoed, shattering the wooden beams and sending the other men waiting on them plummeting to the earth. They landed one after the other with the unmistakable sounds of snapping bones and tearing flesh, but the black-haired girl had already resumed running, her ethereal companion fading into that very same abyss.

"She's way too good at this..."

The blonde shook her head away from the sight of the men struggling to rise and ran after her friend. The next stretch of their sprint took them to a massive entrance hall, as wide as the entire first floor of her house. She let out a deep sigh before fishing her phone out of one of her baggy trouser pockets, but before she could send them home -

"Get back!"

Those two words were all the warning she got before a shadow fell over her. She looked up and yelled, jumping back even as her scream continued. She clapped her mouth shut as a giant crashed into the floor between them, tearing through the carpet and forming a small crater in the marble floor beneath before eyeing them one after another. It was at least three times their height, a humanoid figure with dull blue skin with three misshapen faces, each of its three tongues dangling out of their respective mouths as its scattered eyes scanned the room, clenching and unclenching its several fists. She braced herself and raised her fists. Her brass knuckles, simple metal loops that went around her knuckles with four small lumps facing outward, reflected the candlelight of the chandelier above them and the trace amounts of moon- and starlight creeping in from the open windows far above them.

"Hey, we could probably outrun this guy, you know..."

"I know, but..." The girl in black tapped her back foot against the floor and drew her thin rapier out of its sheath and swished it through the air. Even from this distance her friend could make out the smirk on her face. "He'll be here when we come back. Better to get him out of the way now, right?"

"...you're not wrong..." The blonde squeezed her knuckles again, adding under her breath. "I hate when she's like this..."

"What was that?"

"N - nothing!"

The beast between them roared, signalling an end to their banter, and charged at the blonde. What, did it not think she was armed? _Big mistake._

She crouched, stretching one leg back and touching the ground for just a moment with her opposite hand before she launched herself into a sprint towards their foe, letting out a war cry as she and the creature raced towards each other. The monster lowered its heads as they drew closer, but the blonde just smirked.

"You shouldn't have!"

With only a second to go before impact she used her momentum to jump into their air, throwing one of her fists forward. There was an instant of perfect stillness in her world.

Then her armored knuckles collided with the crown of the beast's head, right where its three faces converged as one. Another moment passed in which she could almost feel her kinetic energy transferring into her target...and then it stumbled back as a dull crack echoed throughout the vast antechamber. She landed, let out a quick breath, then slipped her fingers beneath the edge of her grey mask. She pulled, the porcelain turning to flame as it moved through the air.

"Anne!"

A second ethereal woman formed before her, this one dressed in red and black with a flintlock pistol in each hand and a tricorn hat on her brow. She nudged it out of her eyes with one of her barrels, then unloaded both firearms into the beast's three faces. It staggered back with each shot, eventually managing to cover its eyes from the barrage. The spirit's guns ran dry and she faded, but as soon as she did so the beast roared at her, standing upright once more.

"What? How are you _still standing_?!"

"I hate to say it, but it didn't look like the guns did much to it!"

"Are you for real?!"

The beast snarled at the blonde, then turned to the shorter girl. It roared and charged yet again, this time keeping one of its many arms in front of its faces. The girl in black just smiled and stood up straight, sword at her side as her left hand touched her own mask, perfectly curved to match the contours of her upper face and nose.

"Oh? You think brute force is going to work on _me_? Show him how wrong he is, Genevieve!"

Her mask disappeared in a blue blaze and the white woman appeared behind her just as quickly. She hovered in the air but otherwise remained as still as the one who had called her. Her skin seemed to have been molded from pure white marble, just like the floor beneath them, but with her demure expression and flowing dress one would otherwise be forgiven for mistaking her for one of the princesses at Destinyland, the blonde couldn't help thinking to herself.

Emphasis on _mistaken_ for.

When the beast was mere feet away, drool sailing through the air behind it as it continued to roar, the girl in black raised her hand once more, her thumb and middle finger already pressed together. When the beast was close enough to touch she snapped them and her spirit companion seemed to explode outward in a giant orb of white light. The beast screamed as the expanding sphere slammed against it and sent it flying, its limbs flailing until it crashed onto its back and rolled over - once, twice, three times - before slowing to a stop in a crumpled heap. The blonde looked up in time to see the white light reforming into a humanoid form moments before disappearing altogether. A weak three-part moan brought her attention to the creature between them, waving its arms like a newborn child. Its eyes were shut tight, the entire front of its body singed, thin wisps of smoke trailing from it.

"I see," the girl in black walked forward, examining the creature as if it were nothing more than a strangely shaped fruit "it's bigger than the others but it's still weak to the same stuff. That's useful to know!"

The blonde felt her jaw drop. "Wait...you mean - you mean you _didn't know if that was going to work?!_ "

Her friend just shrugged. "I had a hunch. Your dad's the one who always says to trust your gut, right?"

"W - well, _yeah_ , but..." the creature began to stir and she shook her head. "W - whatever! You ready to take this thing out and get outta here?"

"You know it!" The girl in black took off her feathered cap and twirled it in the air at arm's length, catching it on the edge of her hand and letting it roll down her arm before she flipped it back into the air with a shake of her shoulder and - too fast for her friend to see - slipped it back onto her head. "The show's over, pal!"

* * *

A few stabs of a blade, a few jabs of from a pair of fists, a casual stroll through the now empty chamber and out a pair of giant doors, a press of a screen, a second leisurely walk and 5 minutes on the train...and they were home.

* * *

* * *

"Ahhh..."

Kasumi let out a long sigh as she let herself fall back on her bed, limbs outstretched as she felt her now-loose raven hair billow out around her. She felt a small weight jump onto the bed and make its way up to her face, opening an eye to see a cat's large blue orbs staring into her sole grey one.

"Good evening, Mona..." she cooed, holding her first best friend to her face. The cat exhaled as if letting out a sigh of his own, then licked her nose. She giggled, shutting her eyes tight. "Mona, that tickles!"

"Oh, Monamona's here?"

Hinata entered her bedroom and closed the door behind her before waving to the cat. "Hi kitty! How is widdle Mona doing today?"

The cat let out another sigh-like sound before jumping from Kasumi's hands. The black-haired girl sat up to watch Morgana coil himself around her friend's legs and purr.

"Such a good kitty..." Hinata picked him up and sat on Kasumi's computer chair, turning the seat around to face her. "See, I told you it was better to talk at your place!"

Kasumi stifled a yawn. "But...my mom's still here, while both your parents are out, how is this any more private than - " she froze. Her eyes darted to the door and back. "Uh...you did... _lock_ it this time, right?"

"Yes! Yes, of course I did! I left it open _one time_!" Hinata scoffed and squeezed Morgana, who hissed and jumped out of her grip and back onto the bed. Kasumi crossed her legs and Morgana sat in the space between them, resting his front paws and head on her shins.

"Good Mona..." she whispered before looking back at Hinata. "And Yuta just barged right in! We're lucky we were only talking about _your_ secrets that day..."

"Sh - shut up!" But the faint pink in Hinata's cheeks disappeared as soon as she continued to speak. "A - anyway, Yuta's the reason we're here. You know if we go home early Mom and Dad make me pick him up from Grandma's right?"

"And what's wrong with that?" Kasumi beamed. "Yuta's so _cute_ and I haven't seen him in so long! Besides, all we need to do is let him play a game and he'll leave us alone, right?"

Hinata let out a long, long sigh.

"Uh...what? What did I say?"

The blonde pinched the bridge of her nose as she shook her head. "And here I used to think you were the smart one..."

"But you're older than me! I - I mean, what does that mean?"

Another sigh. Thankfully, this one was much shorter. "Haven't you noticed that Yuta's always bothering us when we hang out together?"

"Well...yeah, but that's because you're his big sister! Of course he'd want to spend time with you - "

"Not _me_ , you dummy!" She raised her fist as if to knock the top of Kasumi's head but lowered it just as quickly. Kasumi wondered if it was because they were too far apart. "He only comes to me if he wants to pin the blame on me for something! Have you seriously never realized that he has a crush on you?!"

Kasumi's eyes went wide and she felt the temperature of her cheeks skyrocket. "Wha - wha - what? A - a - a c - crush...on me?"

Hinata rolled her eyes. "You seriously never saw the signs? Oh, you're helpless...I can't believe I used to talk to you about _boys_!"

"A - a - at least I don't have crushes on my parents' friends!"

Morgana perked up at this for some reason, his eyes on Hinata who blinked several times, her jaw hanging open.

"I do not! I'm not the one who kept begging Kitagawa-san for private art lessons!"

Now it was Kasumi's turn to be stared at by Morgana, not that she noticed as she took him into her arms while springing to her feet.

"I - I - I - " her face was on fire "I just like art, alright? I - it's not my fault I asked him before you did!"

"I - I..." Hinata stared at her with her mouth open once more before she let out a third sigh. "You know what? Just forget it. Just forget all of it. The door's locked. Yuta's not eavesdropping on us, Amamiya-san isn't eavesdropping on us, we have a cute kitty to keep us company - " she leaned forward to scratch the top of Morgana's head and he tilted it up into the gestures, his eyes closing. Both girls smiled at the sight " - we can have our meeting. Agreed?"

"...right." Kasumi cleared her throat and sat down, holding Morgana close. "So. Have you gotten any other ideas about what that glowing sphere thing could be yet? It looked important, right?"

"Yeah...but I've got nothing. What about you? Didn't you say you had a theory?"

"I did..." Kasumi licked her lips. "But it doesn't make any sense now that I've thought about it some more. I mean, we've checked every room in that castle, haven't we?"

Morgana turned to look at her, but she just scratched his chin with a smile and coo and continued talking.

"I know we found that hidden room with the map, but that didn't explain anything either. Oh, right: where _is_ that map?" She stood up, Morgana resting on the arm she kept to her torso as she walked over to her jacket and rummaged in its pockets, eventually pulling out a pair of what looked like brochures. She flashed them at Hinata who dragged Kasumi's bedside cabinet over to the center of the room so that Kasumi could spread the maps out between them once she returned to her seat. She put Morgana down on the bed beside her as she and her partner in crime poured over it, pausing partway only to share a giggle at how cute it was that the cat seemed to be reading the map with them.

They ended the day with no progress made and a promise to look around yet again the next day, but Hinata had stayed so late she got to have a dish of Kasumi's father's curry before leaving, so it wasn't a total loss: as she told Kasumi and her father after they dropped her off at the train station, she looked forward to bragging about it to her father and brother when she got back.

* * *

* * *

The next day after school a dark brunette and a blonde walked into an abandoned factory. As soon as the older of the two shut the rusty front door behind them they disappeared from the world.

* * *

The pair ventured deep into the castle once more, hiding from guards whenever they could, separating them from their companions to cut them down one at a time when they couldn't. They took a break inside a room they knew to be safe for some reason - maybe there was garlic hidden in the door's frame? - to catch their breath and consult their map once more, scratching their heads until Kasumi spotted a small line leading beyond the end of a nearby corridor.

"Are you sure?" Hinata nudged her friend out of the way and leaned into the paper laid out between them. "I don't see it. Are you sure it's not just a printing error? Look, the line could just be the edge of the wall and whoever sketched it went a bit too far."

"Hmm..." Kasumi chewed her lip, a strange sight beneath her expressionless mask. "Perhaps, but everything else about these leaflets has been flawless. Besides, we've already investigated every room on these things and still have no clue what's going on. And...if you look even closer..." she pulled off one of her scarlet gloves and traced the entire line with her nail "doesn't this top part seem a bit thicker than the wall? Maybe there's a passageway there, or at least an alcove. It's worth a shot, right? Besides!" She slipped her glove back on. "It's practically right around the corner, you can handle that can't you, _Senpai_?"

"Ugh...don't call me that! And...yeah, we can do that. Better than nothing, right?" Hinata slammed her fist down on the table and grinned. "Let's go!"

* * *

The dead end in question still seemed that way at first until a frustrated kick from Hinata a few minutes into their search made one side of it - the one closest to the wall that Kasumi had traced on the map - slide back an inch. The girls shared a surprised glance before pushing the same stretch of brick together, moving it further and further until they heard a click and felt it drop by another inch. They stepped back to see what they now knew to be its own panel sliding into the part of the wall that had been real, leaving an unpainted corridor wide enough for the two of them to run side by side goading them forward, small braziers hanging from the bricks on either side flaring to life one after another.

The girls exchanged another glance and accepted the invitation.

The corridor was shorter than it seemed and led them to a small rectangular space, more so another dead-end than a room, that led to a small wooded door taped over with warning signs.

"One of these again..." Kasumi arched her back and Hinata heard a series of small pops from her spine.

"Yeah, this is our third one, right?"

"Mmhm," Kasumi nodded. "Three's a lucky number and all, so hopefully this'll give us some answers. You ready?" She turned to Hinata with a grin and raised fist.

"Always!" Hinata responded with the same. They bumped their knuckles against the other's - Hinata tilting her hand slightly to avoid hurting the former - and stepped forward, their weapons brandished. A mix of black and red fog swirled into being before them, growing so thick they could barely see the door behind it...then disappeared just as quickly as it had arrived, leaving behind a...

Kasumi cocked her head as she tightened her grip on her blade. The creature resembled a blue lion, only with a white mane that covered the length of its body, leaving only its face and paws uncovered. Its ears were larger than a lion's too and hung by the sides of its head as it gnashed its teeth. Its top canines were enlarged, but not as much as its lower canines, which she guessed were the height of one of her hands. She heard the faint sound of bells before catching their gleam: a series of small metal orbs had been tied into the long fur hanging from its neck.

"Well...this is new."

"Yeah, what was that you said about three being the magic number? The other doors didn't have hairy guard dogs!"

"Hey," Kasumi threw a quick glance at her partner then faced forward again "maybe that means this door has something the others don't! Now let's hurry up and do this already!"

Hinata spoke but the beast chose that moment to roar, as if agreeing with her. Of course, Kasumi already knew her friend felt the same way as the both of them and pulled off her mask. "Genevieve!"

* * *

It didn't work.

No matter how many times Kasumi and Genevieve barraged the creature with light, it didn't even flinch. Hinata's bullets weren't much better. Each volley made it take a step back, but that was all they did. Hinata cursed as Anne faded for the...they couldn't even remember how many times she had appeared in this fight. Kasumi grit her teeth and ran forward as the lion-esque... _thing_ 's fur bristled as it prepared its next attack, ignoring Hinata's shout as she dived forward and pierced through its front leg with her rapier. The electricity running over its form died down at once and it howled, but Kasumi didn't pay attention, instead pulling her pistol from its holster at her hip with her left hand and firing three shots directly into the underside of the beast's chin. It raised its head and let out another howl, then a third as she _yanked_ her blade out of its limb, both of its wounds gushing with jets of black mist that evaporated on contact with the outside world. Kasumi took a deep breath, but the beast had already raised its healthier paw. Hinata yelled out a second warning, but neither girl had the reflexes to prevent the claws coming down and launching Kasumi across the room. She slammed into a wall and crumpled, groaning. She tried to open her eyes but clutched her head instead.

"The world's... _spinning_..."

"Oh no, no, no..." Hinata grit her teeth as the creature turned on her downed friend, then screamed. "Hey! Hey, you! Over here!"

The beast paid her no attention, but she had already pulled off her mask.

"Anne!"

The lady pirate burst into existence and unloaded yet another volley into the beast's flank. It stopped and braced itself under the barrage, then turned to her, bells ringing once more as it snarled. Anne disappeared and Hinata froze under its burning gaze, unable to move as it took one step towards her, then another and another.

_Kasumi, run!_

Hinata raised two trembling fists as the beast took one more step...and pounced...

"Raoul!"

A stream of black energy blasted over Hinata's shoulder and into the creature's face, sending it flying. It crashed into the door, tearing through the warning tape on impact. It struggled to its feet, only to be launched into the roof by a sudden gust of wind and slam down once more as a flash of red blazed past her. She turned to see a masked man with frizzy hair run to stand in front of her, a strange little _thing_ with cat-like ears at his feet. She faced forward. The red that had caught her eye before had belonged to another masked figure, this one a woman with long hair of an identical who was currently crouched in front of Kasumi, pouring some sort of liquid into her half-open mouth.

The man was one thing, but that deep red - that could only be...so that meant!

Hinata turned to the man beside her, but he just shook his head.

"Later. Mona, how does it look?"

"Mona?" asked the blonde, only to be ignored when the small figure started speaking.

"They did some good damage, Joker. I think it just had more defense than they expected. It resisted Blondie's attacks at least."

"Hey! My name's not - "

"He's doing it for a reason." The man held a hand out in front of her face and the words died in her throat at once, though his and "Mona's" eyes remained on the beast currently prowling in a tight circle, eyeing them. "How is she, Violet?"

Despite his even tone, Hinata noticed a brief tightening of his lips with his final words. The woman stood up, one of Kasumi's arms around her shoulders. The brunette's expression was a mixture of confusion and the tinted cheeks of embarrassment as "Violet" led her behind the front lines.

"She's fine! Just a bit winded."

The man's facade cracked once again as he let out a sigh, then hardened into his blank expression from before. "I see...good. Now, let's finish this!"

Kasumi pushed herself off of the woman in the leotard/ jacket combo and watched as the man summoned his ethereal companion again, a tall humanoid clad in a red coat with giant artificial wings that sprouted from its lower back. It slashed one of its clawed hands through the air, sending a shockwave of black magic towards their foe, but in that moment she caught a glimpse of its face: that of a metallic demon, a cigar clenched between its fangs. A loud _crash_ snapped her attention back to the target of the attack as it was blasted through the wooden door and slammed against the stone plinth within, crumpling and letting out a faint whine before turning into a second burst of red and black smoke.

With the creature gone, Kasumi let out a soft sigh of relief.

Yet somehow the tension in their air remained just as thick.

The man in the mask looked her and Hinata over.

The latter spoke first.

"Uh...you two are..."

The man cut her off with a raised hand a second time.

"Get your Seed first and let's get out of here. You two are in big trouble, ladies."

* * *

Walking out of the castle was just as tense. As was walking to the station. Sitting on the train was too, especially when Kasumi's parents insisted on the girls taking the free seats and saying nothing else. The raven-haired girl's head was swirling with questions. How had their parents shown up in that place? Why was her dad able to fight as they could and why were he and Mom able to lead them out of the castle so quickly? How had they known what that skull-shaped thing - a Seed? - was?

And why had the cat-like thing with them turned into their house cat?

So many times she'd tried to ask, only to back down when they turned at her voice with those empty expressions. They didn't seem _angry_ per se, but...

The trip should have only taken minutes to complete. Each one felt like an hour.

* * *

* * *

Kasumi's mother led her and Hinata to the dining table and sat them down side by side, squeezing their shoulders in turn before taking a seat across from them. Her father placed a cup of water in front of each teen and sat next to his red-headed wife. Morgana jumped onto the table and sat facing them, as if the three of them were a panel of judges. She'd never seen Morgana acting so... _human_ before but...

Well, that was far from the strangest thing that had happened today.

Her mother spoke first.

"Girls, we're not mad..."

"Mostly not mad." Her father added with a shrug. His wife elbowed him lightly.

"Ren, please!" She returned her gaze to the pair, her features softening. "We just want to know how you ended up in the Metaverse."

"The Metaverse?" Hinata cocked her head.

"That's what it's called?" asked Kasumi. Her parents exchanged glances, then did the same with their cat. He looked at them.

And spoke.

"You're already fighting with your Personas but don't even know _that_?"

Kasumi saw Hinata's jaw drop from the corner of her eye but was too numb to do so herself. Of course she'd seen him talking in the castle - no, Metaverse - but to see him talking so matter-of-factly here...on the other hand, after everything that had happened to her in the span of a single week? Of course cats could talk. Of course. If anything, that made the most sense out of all.

"Um..."

Still. _Talking back_ to a talking cat was another matter entirely.

She tried again.

"Uh..."

Her voice petered out. Morgana rolled his eyes.

"It's still me, you know. We've known each other as long as you've been alive - actually, that goes for both of you - " he glanced at Hinata for a moment before turning his blue orbs back to Kasumi, the same she'd seen the day before - how long ago that felt! - "you don't need to look at me like I'm some weird alien, I - " he froze. His eyes seemed to shimmer for a moment and then he turned his head down, muttering the final word so softly she wasn't sure she'd heard him correctly.

"...please."

Kasumi chewed her lip, then reached out a hand to stroke Morgana's head. He looked up, the same cute kitty she had grown up with.

"Oh, Mona..." she picked him up and held him close, feeling his paws rest on either side of her neck. "I know you are. I'm so sorry about that." She laid him back on the table and gave him a small smile which he returned. "So...this Metaverse, um..." she exchanged glances with Hinata, then took her phone out of her pocket and navigated to her newest app. She opened it, placing it face up on the table. All three members of her family leaned in. Her father let out a low whistle.

"That's the MetaNav alright."

"Th - that's what it's called?"

"Yes." Her mother nodded. "The Metaverse Navigator. It lets you enter the Metaverse if you give it the right keywords."

"Keywords?" Hinata asked the question, cutting Kasumi off before she could. Morgana replied. The blonde flinched but composed herself a heartbeat later, giving him her undivided attention.

"Yep. A Ruler - I mean, a person's name - followed by a location and a distortion - what that person thinks that place. So in this case..." he raised a paw to the phone, then paused and looked at Kasumi. "Do you mind if I - ?"

"Oh! Yeah...I - I mean, no! G - Go right ahead."

"Thanks." Morgana swept through the app to the list of shortcuts. That he was able to do something so mundane so simply hit her hard with another wave of realization that yes, her family really was already accustomed to that other world. Morgana read the sole entry in the list and nodded to himself. Her parents rotated the screen to face them and did the same.

"This name..." muttered her mother. "Isn't this one of your teachers?"

Her voice was warm. Her father's was cold. He clenched his fist as he read out the next two entries.

"She thinks that abandoned warehouse is her _castle_? Remember our first heist, Morgana?" He grit his teeth.

"Uh, yeah Ren..."

The man in his late thirties brushed his nose. "How _nostalgic_." He sneered for a moment. Kasumi had never seen her father's face look so... _demented_ before. "So. What has this woman been doing to you two?"

"What? Nothing!" Both girls spoke in unison, waving their hands in front of them.

"Don't lie to me. If she's been hurting you in any way, if she's been saying things, d - d - doing things..." His eyes clouded. Kasumi could almost hear his snarl and slammed her hands on the table to stop him, standing up in the same motion. He blinked, his anger swapped in that instant for surprise.

"Sensei's a wonderful person!" She tried not to shout, but couldn't help the trembling in her throat. "She...she really is, but these past few months she's been...she's been _so_ sad! And we have no idea why!"

"Well..." Hinata frowned, still in her seat. "We have a few theories - but we don't know for sure...and we don't feel comfortable talking about them either," she added, scanning the faces of their audience quickly.

"Mmhm." Kasumi nodded and took over. "We bumped into her near that place last year: she said she used to play there as a child because her parents owned the company it used to be a part of and told us it was her happy place. We've seen her there a few times since too, but ever since she changed..."

"She doesn't go there anymore," Hinata stroked Kasumi's arm and the two shared a nod, after which the younger of the two took her seat once more. "We were just talking about her last week when we were coming back from lunch with Yuki and happened to walk by there and...I don't know what happened..."

"Me neither." The girls glanced at one another again and shook their heads in unison before the younger of the two resumed talking.

"I remember thinking out loud how important that place must have been to her and...I guess I must have called it her 'castle', Morgana-chan, because the next thing we knew my phone started talking." She scrolled the near-empty list of shortcuts up and down, the screen snapping back to the current page each time she raised her fingers. "And we ended up in that weird place." She looked at her parents and Morgana, but they said nothing. "We didn't know what was going on, so we kept going until - "

"You didn't know what was going on, so you _kept going_?"

"Ren!"

" _Ren!_ "

Morgana hissed and Mom swatted his arm. He looked at both of them in reverse before turning to Kasumi.

"My bad, go on."

"Um...right. So - where was I? Oh, right! We kept going and started seeing all these exhibits - you know, little photos and toys and stuff under glass cases like in a museum - showing a bunch of kids that kept getting older and - "

" - it was only when they became teenagers that we realized one of them was Sensei!"

"Right, what Hinata said. But the pictures stopped a bit after she got married and, well, we got lost! So we kept going until we found this map..." she picked her school bag off the floor by her feet and rummaged in it, pulling out the two brochures. She looked them over, muttered "This half we found later..." and slipped one back inside before spreading the other out in front of her family.

"This brings back memories..."

"Morgana!" Dad scowled, though the expression only lasted a second. Kasumi glanced at her mother, who also seemed nostalgic.

Wait.

Morgana was reading the map right now. That was something he was able to do - which made sense, he could walk (sometimes) and talk and read her app out loud, but watching him read the map made her think of...

"Wait. Wait wait wait, Morgana-chan! You _were_ reading this yesterday, weren't you?!" She stared at the cat. Hinata looked from one to the other before gasping.

"You _were_! And you must have told her parents! You little rat!"

"Hey! I'm not a rat!" Morgana hissed, his fur standing on end as his whole body vibrated. "I'm a - " he growled. "You're just like your father, you know? All these years I've been hoping you would be better than that shaved monkey - "

"What did you say about my dad?!" Hinata sprung from her seat, sending it to the floor with a _bang_ , her fists raised. Kasumi looked from one to the other, shocked, only for her own father to lower his voice.

"That's enough, Morgana. He doesn't mean that, Hinata. The two of them get along just fine. Besides, this is your story time. We'll tell our side of the story later."

Morgana relaxed at once and lay down. Hinata glared at him for a few seconds before pulling her chair back up and sitting down again, mumbling under her breath. Kasumi opened her mouth to continue the story, only for a second stray thought to hit her.

"Wait...Morgana-chan, you know Sakamato-san?"

"I know both of her parents," he licked his paw. Even in cat form it was clear how proud he was of himself in that moment. "And more people besides. Nyehehe..."

Kasumi blinked a few times, her lips parted before she swallowed. "I...see. A - anyway, we got this leaflet and thought we could use it to get out, but then one of those watchmen showed up. Um, did you see any of them when you came in?" She looked from one to the other, head bowed slightly.

"Yes," said Dad. "Two, but we snuck by them soon enough. To be honest I was confused because they looked so modern, but seeing what the maps of this Palace look like - " he prodded the leaflet " - and hearing your account just now explains it."

"You think it's a museum too, don't you?" asked Mom. "One that just so happens to be built in a castle, don't you?" He nodded.

"I know that can happen sometimes," he offered. "But back to you Kasumi: something tells me this watchman wasn't there to talk?"

She pursed her lips and shook her head. "Nuh uh. We _tried_ to talk, but then he looked at us with this weird mask that didn't even have any eyeholes in it! Hinata tried to ask if that was the aesthetic of the place, but then he started chasing us! We ran as fast as we could, but looking back I guess we were so loud we attracted a bunch of other guards, so all of a sudden we were surrounded and...and..." she trailed off, but Hinata picked up like clockwork.

"We were scared obviously, but what happened next was so cool - !"

"It really wasn't..." Kasumi could feel a familiar heat creeping up her cheeks.

"It was though! I was being really lame and trying to say we were just lost, but then Kasumi here went really still all of a sudden, and then she started having this migraine from hell - "

" _'Migraine from hell'_ , huh?" Dad chuckled. "That's a good way of describing it."

"Ren! Let her finish!"

"Right. Sorry, Sumire. Sorry, Hinata-chan."

"Um...it's alright. A - anyway, all of a sudden this mask appears on her face, right? And she starts pulling at it and there's blood _every_ where and those guards are about to jump on us and then _WOOSH_!" She swung her arms into the air, making the others jump with her shout. "All of a sudden this giant, white lady shows up and Kasumi's in a super cool suit and dropping one-liners and then it was just _WHAM! POW! BOOM!_ and then the hall was empty! It was so cool!"

"Please stop..." Kasumi's forehead had fallen to the table a long time ago, but the new color of her face was still clearly visible.

"One-liners, huh? Like father, like daughter I guess." Morgana muttered.

"Morgana, I wasn't like that..."

"Actually, you were. Didn't you enter your first Palace the same way she did too?"

"Sumire!"

His wife and cat chuckled to themselves, the former covering her mouth as she did so. He sighed.

"So that's how you got your Persona, huh? And what about you, Hinata? You had one too when we showed up."

"Oh! Uh...that wasn't a big deal, really..."

"Yes, it was!"

It was as if a switch had been flicked: now Kasumi was the one beaming while Hinata blushed, her cheeks in stark contrast to her platinum blonde hair.

"It wasn't, Kasumi! You were just tired after protecting me all that time, so - "

" - so you stood in front of me even though you couldn't fight, that was so amazing!"

"No it wasn't, you'd done so much for me until then..."

"That doesn't matter! You saved my life, _Senpai!_ " Kasumi she leaned back in her chair and fluttered her long eyelashes at Hinata, whose blush deepened. She turned away at once, scratching her cheek. Meanwhile Morgana exchanged glances with each of her parents, all three of them trying not to laugh as Hinata alternated between glaring at and hiding from their flirtatious daughter.

"Uh - um...anyway!" Hinata cleared her throat and Kasumi relented with a final chuckle. The blonde let out a sigh of relief. "Anyway, we both got our Personas and got out of there because Kasumi was tired. I mean, we wanted to explore. but there wasn't much point with just one person, was there?"

"Of course not," Dad inclined his head. "So you went back in the next day?"

"Actually, no." Hinata glanced at the brunette and back. "I wanted to, but Kasumi wanted us to get some medicine first in case we got hurt in there. You know, painkillers and bandages and stuff."

Kasumi's father made an impressed sound. Her mother gave her a quick and quiet round of applause while Morgana gave her a happy nod and soft "Nice!" Kasumi blushed once more.

"Um...thank you."

"Yeah!" Hinata grinned. "That's when I decided to make her the leader. We've been going into that castle since the day after and her preparation really saved our hides in there over and over again!"

Kasumi winced and glanced at her parents, whose expressions had frozen - her mother's in a state of shock, her father's in anger. She bit her lip and shot a quick look at the still beaming and talking Hinata before looking at the two adults once more, whose faces eventually softened. When no words of fear or warning came, she allowed herself her own quick sigh of relief.

"She's really smart too!" Hinata had continued to say. "I mean, I always knew she was smarter than me, but _wow_ is she smart! She's really perceptive too! You'd be surprised how many ambushes she spotted before they even happened! I mean, she's not perfect and we _did_ get in serious trouble a few times, but - "

" _That's-the-short-version-of-our-week-so-far!_ " Kasumi tried to speak loud enough to drown out her friend but not loud enough to be shouting, the result leaving her vocal chords as a rushed squeak, though one that did its job - albeit also prompting raised eyebrows from all three of the people listening to their story.

Which left Hinata. At least she didn't seem to have heard anything wrong.

"So..." Kasumi continued. "That's what we've been doing this week. We've had a few rough scrapes, not gonna lie, but overall I think we handled ourselves quite well. The problem is - " she reached into her bag once more and retrieved the second leaflet, moving the first to one side so she could align its map with the second " - we've searched this entire place from top to bottom, including all the hidden rooms as of today. Oh, I should..." she muttered the last words to herself, diving into her bag one last time for a pen with which she quickly drew a thin line protruding from a corridor and sketched a small rectangle on the other end connected to a much wider yet shorter rectangle "...I just wanted to finish the map off," she muttered as an explanation, then faced her parents and cat once again followed by a quick glance at her teammate before continuing. "The problem is, we still have no idea what to do here. This place clearly has something to do with our Sensei, but we can't figure out how they're connected." She and Hinata shared another confused look. "We even tried asking her if she'd ever seen anything weird back there and...and she just look offended..." she trailed off, looking at the carpet to one side for a moment before shaking her head. "So...yeah: even after searching and fighting and...and everything, we still have no idea what to do. Um...I know it's not my place to ask this, but if you know anything this Mom, Dad, Morgana-cha - Morgana-san..." She bit her lip and got out of her chair, standing to one side of the table and bowing to the three of them.

"Please help us."

Kasumi kept her head down, but sensed Hinata looking at her before standing on the other side of the table and doing the same.

"Please."

* * *

Ren looked at the two girls. He looked at his partner in crime at his left and his better half on his right. Both gave him faint smiles while nodding and so he sighed, scratching his chin.

"Well, now that the adrenaline's worn off, I guess it would be pretty hypocritical of me to say no..."

"Hypocritical?" Kasumi tilted her head up, her body still in its bow. "Dad?"

"A story for another time. You said you explored everything? Tell me..." he scanned both halves of the map. "Did you find any glowing white orbs hanging in the air anywhere?" He drew a circle with his finger around the top of the second brochure. "If I had to guess I'd say it would be somewhere around here..."

* * *

* * *

The second day after their talk with the Amamiyas saw Kasumi and Hinata enter what they now knew to be a Palace. Unlike their usual excursions though, this time the birth of the towering structure before them was accompanied by a series of _wooshes_ behind them. They turned to see a small cat-like creature walk up to them, followed by two sets of adults. Hinata took one look at the woman clad in red and pretended to retch.

" _Mom!_ Aren't you too old to be wearing something like that?!"

"Excuse _you_ , young lady!" Mrs. Sakamoto leaned forward, her hands on her hips. "I'm still plenty young, thank you very much!"

"Yeah, she looks as young as she was when she had you!" Her father rubbed her mother on the back as she stood, prompting the woman to poke her tongue out at the teen. Kasumi turned to her own parents - particularly her mother who, after hearing the earlier commotion, was patting down her exposed legs, a faint blush already spreading over her face. Her father just pulled her up with a smile.

"You look as beautiful as ever, _my love_."

"Re - ! I mean, Joker! Y - you can't just _say_ things like that!"

"Like what?"

"L - l - like..!"

Kasumi tried not to smile as her mother's face grew to match her shining crimson locks. Besides, her father was grinning enough for the both of them, though he composed himself and patted his wife's shoulder after a few seconds so she could do the same. The adults and cat exchanged glances before her dad walked up to join the teens in front of the other four.

"Alright, girls:" Hinata's father wore a mask in the shape of a skull over his face, the grey blending into his black hair, and held an ornate club against his shoulder. As a stranger she may have been horrified, but as someone who'd considered him an honorary uncle her entire life Kasumi couldn't think of anything that would suit him better. "You delivered the calling card, right?"

Kasumi nodded. "We slipped it under the office door, just as dad told us to."

"And she doesn't suspect anything?" It was said father that had spoken. Kasumi eyed his attire, from his white domino mask to his perfectly tailored suit and sharp shoes.

"Not at all. She definitely freaked out though." Kasumi turned away from him, catching his surprise from the corner of her vision as she did so. She felt bad for him, but at the same time couldn't help feeling jealous that he wore her look better than she did - and had done so for over two decades, if his stories were true.

"Well..." her mother stepped forward next. While the leotard had drawn her eye first, now Kasumi noticed that she also wore a fancy black coat and gloves, just like her father and herself.

Huh. Well, if suits were a family thing, maybe it wasn't so bad that they all looked the same..?

She shook her head to take in what her mother was saying.

"...it may hurt her now, but it'll all be worth it in the end."

"Yeah!" To round out the quartet, Hinata's mother pumped her fist. "Let's save your teacher! Are you ready, girls?"

"Yes, Mom!" Hinata cheered, her hand held high. Her mother high fived it, followed by her father. Kasumi just nodded at them and smiled at her own parents.

"Now!" Morgana's voice surprised and drew her attention to the ground. "The Calling Card only works for a single day, so if we can't steal the Treasure today, we'll never get a chance again. Remember?"

"Yes, Morgana-san!" Hinata stood up straight and saluted as if to a commanding officer. Kasumi just nodded. Morgana bristled for some reason.

"...and that's another thing. We're inside someone's mind: it's dangerous to use our real names here, so we need to use codenames. For example, my name here is Mona and these are - " he turned and pointed to Kasumi's father, but -

"I'm Joker. I look forward to doing business with you, kiddos."

"I'm Violet!"

"Panther!" She clawed at the air and winked.

"And your old man is Skull!" He jabbed a thumb towards his mask. "I bet you didn't expect that, did'ya?"

\- they beat Morgana to the punch. The humanoid cat sighed and turned to the girls once more.

" - well, that. Anyway, that means you two will need codenames too. I don't know how many times you used your real names here, but - "

"Oh, we use codenames." Kasumi shrugged.

Morgana froze, his mouth open mid-speech while their parents raised their eyebrows or opened their mouths in surprise.

"Oh?" It was her father - no, _Joker_ \- who spoke first. "What are they?"

"Oh! Umm..."

Why were her cheeks red all of a sudden?!

"We... Umm..."

"We just picked them on the fly," Hinata came to her rescue. "We're wearing these masks, right?" She tapped her own. "So we figured it'd be cool to go all in on the secret identity thing. Anyway, I'm 'Brawler', because...you know:" she held up her hands, palms facing inward to reveal her brass knuckles to the adults "these things, while Ka - I mean, my friend over here..." She turned to Kasumi, but froze at the sight of her hiding her red face in her hands.

"Ahhhhhh, it's so embarrassing..."

"Uh, no it isn't."

"It _is_!" Kasumi let out a low whine.

Hinata saw Joker lean into Violet's ear and mutter something along the lines of "Like mother, like daughter, don't you think?" to which she swatted his arm away with a pout and face their daughter.

"It doesn't matter what name you came up with. I'm sure it's lovely!"

"It's dumb!" Kasumi's words were still being muffled by her hands at which point Hinata rolled her eyes.

"It is _not!_ Anyway, it's 'Ace'. She was the first of us to get their Persona and understood everything faster too, so it made perfect sense!"

Kasumi whined a second time but peeked over the tips of her fingers. This time she was the one to see her parents' whispering: now it was Violet who leaned into Joker's ear.

"Like father, like daughter, don't you think?"

Her father recoiled and looked away with a faint "Stop that..." and dusting of pink on his cheeks. Kasumi turned to see that Panther had had the same effect on Skull...and blushed again. A lighter blush this time. One she could overcome immediately.

Which was fortunate, as Joker chose that moment to walk behind her and look at the castle, adjusting his crimson gloves - which were far smaller than the elbow length gloves she wore, she noticed.

"So. We've materialized the Treasure. All that's left now is to steal it. Right, Thieves?"

Morgana and the other adults cheered, then turned to the teens who had pursed their lips.

"Girls?" He asked.

"That's the thing, Dad, everyone..." Kasumi gave him a strained smile and turned to the other adults to give them the same "It's just - Brawler and I really appreciate you being here for us, but..." she licked her lips and looked at Hinata, who just beamed and nodded. She whispered a quick thanks in response. "This is _our_ Sensei we're dealing with here. I know how strong you must all be, but at the same time we..." another glance at her friend, another exchange of nods.

"We want to save her with our own power!" Hinata pumped her fists. "She's such a great teacher, we want to do this for her ourselves!" A pause of a few seconds passed, then her eyes went wide. "I - it's not like we're saying you're useless or anything! It's just that...well, Kasumi and I - "

"Ace," Kasumi reminded her.

"Right, Ace! Well, Ace and I were talking last night and...you know..."

Skull stepped forward with his arms crossed and a deep scowl on his face. Hinata tensed as he drew near, only to look up in shock as her father simply slapped her on the back and laughed.

"Don't worry, you two: we all know exactly how you feel. Ain't that right, everyone?"

He and the girls looked forward to see two women and a cat smiling and nodding at them. Skull motioned for them to turn around so they could see Joker do the same.

"I mean," Skull continued. "We've been in your shoes before, we would have hated it if someone else came in and stole our thunder too, even if they were an expert! Isn't that right, Panther? Everyone?"

Another round of nods. Joker patted Kasumi's back and for a moment she was a child again, looking up at the strongest person she'd ever known.

She couldn't help the small, warm smile that blossomed onto her lips as he spoke.

"You're calling all the shots today girls. We're just on...clean-up duty, let's call it. We'll wipe the floor with any Shadows you ask us to and keep an eye on you two if things get rough, but otherwise this is all you. You two okay with that?"

"Yep!"

"Thank you, Dad!"

The girls spoke as one, though Kasumi also jumped into him, wrapping him in a hug. He let out a sharp laugh of surprise and rubbed the crown of her head.

"Oh! Heh, didn't expect you'd get so emotional! Remember, you're the leader now, you can't start getting sappy on us."

Kasumi stepped back, trying to pout through her grin and failing miserably. "I'm not getting sappy! I - " she froze "...wait. _I'm_ the leader? Of - of all of you too?" Her jaw dropped.

"That's what I said, isn't it?" Joker winked. "From what Brawler says, you're a fine one already. Mona said the same thing after eavesdropping on your little meeting the other day too. So what do you say, Ace? Ready to give us your orders?"

"I...Brawler...and Mona..? I..."

Kasumi's cheeks turned red almost immediately, but she accepted her responsibilities.

...eventually.

* * *

The run to the Treasure took barely any time at all. Not only had Kasumi and Hinata already cleared most of the route of enemies, the few stragglers stood no chance now that their fighting force had more than tripled, with Persona users far more experienced than them to boot. The girls heaved against the large doors leading to the throne room, only for their fathers to take over instead.

"Uh...thanks, Dad."

"We meant what we said about not stealing your thunder, you know," Joker winked. "Now go save your teacher."

"Right!" Kasumi beamed. The doors had parted _just_ enough for her to slip through and she did, followed a moment later by the bulkier Hinata.

The pair rushed into the large room and towards the crimson throne at the far end. The Treasure had been floating directly above the ornate seat, so if they could just -

"Hello there."

The large double doors behind the throne opened as one with the faintest of creaks. The speaker was hidden behind the seat for now but they could hear her coming closer and closer until she walked around it and down the large carpeted stairs to their level, every single one of her steps deliberate. She wore a simple black dress that fell past her feet, her arms draped in elbow length gloves of the same color and a translucent veil covering her face. But, while her voice was distorted, as if coming from several places at once, at its core it was unmistakeably...

"Kubo-sensei!" Hinata skidded to a halt. "Is it really you?"

"That voice..." her own still echoed, but their teacher paused on the bottom step all the same "Sakamoto-chan?"

"Yes, it's me! Are you - "

"Wait!" Kasumi stopped her as she tried to move with an outstretched hand. "Are you Kubo-sensei's Shadow?"

Kasumi ignored the faint "Shadow? Oh, right! What Mona-chan told us about!" from her right, instead focusing on Sensei who seemed to think for a moment before walking again.

"So it _was_ you who sent me that card," she said at last. "I had a feeling, but I wasn't sure. I assume you're looking for this?" She raised a hand. There was a small flash of light, then a pair of handcuffs fell into her open palm.

"Is that your Treasure?" asked Brawler.

"Yep." Kasumi jumped and turned around; she hadn't realized their parents were already standing behind them, but her father continued his explanation. "Treasures take on different shapes based on the Ruler. I could make a few guesses about what she's going through right now, but I'd prefer to wait until after we get it back into reality."

"Oh?" The Shadow spoke next. "You're already so sure you'll be getting your hands on it, are you?" Another small flash of light and the cuffs vanished. She snapped her now free fingers and smaller Shadows burst into being around them. "Guards! Come to me, protect your Queen!"

The watchmen let out a chorus of grotesque cheers before exploding into black fog, reforming into a vast array of monsters, each a different size and shape. Kasumi swallowed, but her father patted her on the back and turned to the other adults.

"Alright Thieves! Clean-up duty, let's get to it!"

The other parents nodded and gave the girls thumbs-up before diving into the fray. Joker gave the pair a wink and followed them, leaving Morgana. He and the teens looked at each other for a moment before he spoke.

"Uh...I know what we said before, but...I'm a really good healer! I won't get in your way, I promise! It's just that...if you kids got hurt, I... _I-wouldn't-be-able-to-live-with-myself!_ "

He bowed. The girls exchanged surprised looks before smiling at him.

"Mona-chan..." Kasumi got on one knee. "Of course you can help us! You're my precious kitty, after all!"

"R - really?" Morgana's eyes glistened as he looked up at them and watered when Hinata nodded behind her, but they cleared up when he nodded back to the pair. "You can count on me, Ace! I'll show you why I was your dad's best teammate!"

"I heard that, cat!" came a gruff voice from behind them, but the three just giggled among each other before turning to face their teacher, who merely scoffed.

"So. You three against me, is it? That's simple enough. Just know that once I'm done, I'll mourn you as well."

She covered her face and cowered. A moment later she started to tremble. The trio tensed and tried to ignore her whimpering, but just when Kasumi's resolve waned and she reached out to Kubo-sensei she threw her head back in a shrill scream.

Kasumi covered her ears. She turned around and saw the other humans and Shadows alike were doing the same. She grit her teeth and shut her eyes, but as soon as it started the sound cut off, only to be replaced by a strange squelching. She faced forward once more.

Then looked up.

Their teacher had grown several magnitudes larger, but lost her lower body in the process. Instead of hips, her torso spread out into a small field of grey grass coated in black oil, though arranged in a semi-circle before her were six misshapen tombstones, each in various states of disrepair. Kubo-sensei pulled her hands back from her face - her fingers now elongated with pronounced veins and long claws - and snarled, her dark veil unable to conceal her blood red lips or her enormous fangs.

"Well?" She was rasping, but her voice still boomed throughout the hall. "Come at me, then!"

A fist burst out from in front of the second tombstone to her right, sending a small shower of mud, dust and oil flying with a dull _boom_ that made the girls jump. The fist unfurled and grabbed the grass to its right. The arm tensed and with a second, louder _boom_ a head burst out in a larger shower. Hinata shrieked and Kasumi felt bile rise in the back of her throat as a half-decayed corpse pulled itself out of the dirt, bone and greenish flesh visible through the holes in its skin. In stark contrast to its body, its hair was near flawless - a rich carpet of short brown locks save for two empty patches through which they could see its skull.

It couldn't have been much older than them before its death.

Kasumi felt her hands trembling, but forced them into fists and grit her teeth. From the corner of her eye she saw Hinata do the same. Morgana stepped in front of them and brandished his scimitar.

"O - o - okay, don't be scared, girls! Just remember that we're all with you!" The skeleton and giant woman behind it seemed to leer at him for his words and he swallowed before standing up straight. The zombie lumbered towards them as Morgana spoke again, though he rushed his words out in preparation for the impending conflict. "Okay, I use Wind attacks. Ace, you seemed to use Bless on the way here and I saw you using Gun attacks the other day, Brawler. I'll let you know if we have any advantages or disadvantages. Now go, Ace! Make us all proud!"

* * *

The first of Sensei's defenders proved weak to Guns as it turned out, so a few of Anne's Bullet Volleys - as Hinata called them - were enough to tear through it, though Kasumi still felt a sudden sense of loss as it was shattered by those numerous shots of lead into bony splinters in midair that broke into grey dust. Kubo's Shadow screamed and clawed at her head, tearing gashes through the sides of her hood. This time, a pair of hands burst through two patches of earth, both directly in front of the tombstones directly in front of her. These skeletons were a few inches shorter than the first, though what remained of their hair had already begun to turn white in places. One wore a checkered shirt and trousers, the other a cardigan and floor-length skirt.

"Hey, are those supposed to be her..."

"Not now, Brawler!" Kasumi took a few quick breaths and tightened her grip on her rapier. "We have to get out of here alive first!"

"R - right!"

"Mona! What can you tell me about them?"

* * *

The older Kubos didn't seem especially vulnerable to any of their attacks, but didn't resist them either. So it was only a matter of brute forcing their way through their slow attacks and hardy defenses for them to fall one after the other. Kasumi winced as Kubo-sensei's mother's skull snapped off of the rapier embedded in her neck, the rest of her body breaking apart bit by bit, each part becoming dust before hitting the dead grass below. Kasumi swept as much sweat as she could from her brow, only able to reach the topmost edge from beneath her mask and turned to her family. The Shadows were starting to run low, but there were still too many to feel safe. Her mother stabbed a Shadow - also through the neck - and killed it, turning to her even as the creature dissolved around her blade and smiled.

Kasumi smiled back, but a Shadow lunged at the older woman. She wanted to cry out, but her mother must have already sensed it as she took a step back to dodge it. Only then did she flash her daughter a wider smile and give it her full attention. Kasumi flashed a wider smile to the back of her crimson head, but another earthshattering scream brought her attention back to her own conflict. Kubo-sensei called two more guardians, one who had been buried on her far right and the other in the second coffin to her left. Out of the former emerged an even older woman, hunched over even as a member of the undead and stumbling into position to defend her, while the latter body was that of a young adult's. In addition to the torn clothing he shared with the others, his shirt bore an additional hole over his heart, the surrounding fabric stained a mixture of deep red and black.

The exhibits in the 'museum' they had seen in their first excursion through the Palace flashed in front of Kasumi's eyes.

"Oh right, her grandmother used to live with them when Sensei was younger..."

She shook the memory from her head as the zombies drew closer and raised her sword, though spared a quick glance at the Shadow creating them. Kubo-sensei towered over them. Her face was near horizontal, yet her veil refused to drop from her face, though even now they could see her teeth bared...

But a drop of clear liquid chose that moment to seep through that same veil and splash on the carpet below.

Kasumi bit her lip.

"I don't know what's happening to you, Sensei...but I swear I'm going to fix it!"

* * *

The Kubo matriarch fell to Morgana's Wind attacks while her Sensei's husband fell to Genevieve's Blessed onslaught. Compared to the former, whose form broke apart as if in slow motion in the fierce gale, Kasumi was relieved that the young man faded from existence while still whole. She was afraid to say it aloud for fear of being called naive, but he even seemed to close his eyes as he disappeared, as if in peace.

...but the Shadow still above them screeched and clawed at her face once more, this time tearing her hood off entirely, revealing bulging, bloodshot eyes as the final coffin opened, only this time it burst open all at once and the tiny occupant floated out.

"Oh no..." Hinata cupped her mouth while Morgana's hung slack. Kasumi's legs trembled beneath her as her sword arm fell to her side.

"No..." she muttered. "No, I...I can't do this. I can't do this!"

A child floated to the ground before them, barely two years old.

She held two pudgy arms out, her hands dangling from them, and waddled towards them on twisted feet, babbling as she approached them at a snail's pace. She didn't know who she had to thank for the baby to not have decayed, though her skin was still a pale grey and a few strands of her shoulder length brown hair fell away with each step. Kasumi tried to point her rapier as the small figure drew nearer...but the blade fell from her hand as it spasmed, bouncing once on the faded grass beneath her.

"I...I..."

She sank to her knees beside it. The child smiled. She felt tears forming on her cheeks.

"I can't...I can't do this! Sensei, I can't..."

"Ace..."

She turned at the voice and saw Morgana beside her. He placed a paw on her arm and she shuddered. The baby tripped and fell on her front and Kasumi almost reached out to grab her, only for the oil surrounding her to remind her that -

"This...none of this is real. None of this is real. _None of this is - !_ "

Yet why could she still not move?

The child struggled to stand and Kasumi turned to Hinata who had taken a step back, both hands covering her mouth as tears poured down her cheeks.

"Mona...Mona-chan, I - I - " she turned to the cat. "What do I do?"

Morgana, for all his decades of experience, looked just as lost as she felt. "I don't know, I - I've never seen anything like this either! I...Diego!"

His cartoonishly proportioned Persona appeared before them as if to mock them, then drew its sword in a Z-shape in the air.

"Mona, no!"

"Wait!"

Despite having paws Morgana was still able to pull her down when she tried to jump up and she sank again, watching in horror as Diego summoned yet another hurricane and sent it forward with a swish of his sabre. Kasumi felt her nails dig into her palms even through her gloves as the storm approached the child.

...and breathed a sigh of relief as the winds twisted out of the child's path and slid in behind her before billowing outward to surround her sensei's Shadow.

"Oh, Mona-san! Thank goodness!"

"Don't mention it," and yet he looked just as relieved as her. "I'm surprised we didn't try this earlier to be honest..."

But a rainbow-colored shimmer appeared around the Shadow, followed by a shimmer around the child. A third light flashed into existence in the shape of a line connecting Sensei's navel to the small of the child's back before all three disappeared, taking the wind with it.

"You can't be serious..." Hinata's whisper boomed in the sudden silence. The Shadow Kubo cackled, yet more tears spilled from her eyes as she did so.

" _How do you think_ I _feel?!_ " She shrieked, her voice echoing more than ever before. But with that increased echoing Kasumi could make out the additional voices in more detail. " _You want to make_ me _miserable?! You don't know the meaning of the word!_ "

One voice was raspy and feminine. Two were soft, one feminine, one masculine. A strong masculine voice was in the cacophany too, combined with a high-pitched voice that she could still identify as yet another male's.

The final voice accompanying her sensei's spoke with the delicate lilt of a child.

"I don't...we have to...to k - k - kill the child to get to her?" Morgana held the side of his face. "How...how are we supposed to do that?!"

The toddler was close now, close enough that if Kasumi reached out she would be able to touch her outstretched, tiny palms. She felt an immense pressure emanating from her pure face: to be honest she'd always been feeling it, but now, with the child so close? It was suffocating and deep down she knew, despite her limited knowledge of the Metaverse, that if the child so much as touched her...she wouldn't be able to survive.

And yet she couldn't move. She could only look at that pure face and wonder... _how?_

She felt Morgana tugging at her sleeve, begging her to fall back. It took a few precious seconds for his words to seep through the swamp of her brain, but eventually she let him pull her back and out of the child's reach. She tried to stand, but stumbled.

She fell forward.

The child reached up as if to catch her.

She closed her eyes.

A wave of white swept the child out from under her, her expression unchanged as she sailed back on the light and crashed into her mother's stomach. Kasumi fell on her hands and knees, gasping for the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding and turned back to see her mother and father running towards them.

"Ace! Are you alright?"

Her mother reached them first. She didn't know from where, but Kasumi found the strength to jump towards her and hug her legs, still on her own knees as she pressed her face into the redhead's stomach and wept. She felt her mother's arms envelop her, crossing over at the back of her neck.

"Ace...Kasumi, what happened? What - oh..."

She could sense her father within arm's reach, but that he hadn't spoken yet told her he had seen their current opponent too. Nearby she could hear Hinata crying to her own parents, but before she could say anything felt her dad's bare hand running through her hair. She looked up to see him giving her a warm smile - one matched by his wife. Kasumi sniffed and swallowed her throat as clear as she could. Joker took his hand back and instead offered it to her. She accepted and let him pull her to her feet, one of her mother's hands still on her back.

"Mom, Dad, I'm sorry. Our first big heist and we botched it big time, huh?" She tried to laugh as she wiped her cheeks dry, but her chest and throat refused to comply.

"It's fine." Her mother's voice was so soothing. "It's going to be fine..."

"Yeah," her father's voice seemed calm at first, but she knew him enough to know he was putting on a front. "To be honest, if you weren't here we'd probably be running for the hills ourselves. It feels like just yesterday when _you_ were that size..."

"Ren, let's not think about that."

"...you're right. I'm sorry, Violet."

" _So you understand!_ " The seven-part shrieking began anew. Kasumi turned to see the child had gotten up, but was struggling to keep its balance on its broken limbs. " _You know how I feel! Why are you still here?! Why won't you leave me be?! Let me mourn in peace!"_

"This is more than just mourning!" Joker swept his arm through the air. Kasumi wasn't sure if it was the confidence burning in his eyes or if his voice really was that loud, but he silenced the Shadow's voices at once. "This is self-pity! Self-hatred! Look around! You have students who adore you, I'm sure you still have friends too! We won't let you do this to yourself!"

He seemed to emanate a mighty aura with each word.

And in that moment?

For the first time in her life she saw the 'confident young man' her mother had fallen for and understood how he had led a group that had taken all of Japan by storm when he was just a teenager like her.

 _He'd been hiding_ this _all this time?_

But the Shadow felt differently.

" _Shut up! Everything I love dies! My grandmother! My parents! My dear brother! My husband! My...m - my...my little Mizuki..! WHY?! Why won't you just leave me alone!_ "

"Because we care about you!" Kasumi stepped up alongside her father, ducking quickly to retrieve her rapier before brandishing it. "You're always so kind to everyone, Kubo-sensei! We won't let you carry on like this!"

" _That voice...Amamiya-chan? That's you, isn't it Kasumi Amamiya? What could you know?_ " The Shadow leaned into her face as quickly as a literal shadow. Kasumi smelt rotting flesh on her breath but fought the urge to splutter. " _When I was your age I'd already lost my older brother to a sickness forced on him by our wretched blood!_ "

"Oh yeah?" Again she fought the urge to heave. "My mother had already lost _her_ older sister when she was my age! Did you know that? That's who I'm named after!"

Sensei's eyes widened for a moment, then she glanced at Violet who gave her a small nod. The Shadow stood tall once more.

Then scoffed.

" _Tsch. It doesn't change anything! At least she still has a loving family! I'm sure you just_ love _having grandparents that spoil you, don't you? And she also has a husband in good health and a beautiful young girl...and what do I have?_ Nothing!"

"You have _us!_ " Kasumi felt tears in her eyes yet again. "You're right, I don't know what you're going through, but please! We love you, Kubo-sensei! You've helped us so much in the time we've known each other - _all_ your students love you! I'm sorry for whatever happened to you, but please!" The tears had passed her cheeks now but she let them fall. "Please, come back to us! We're still here for you, aren't we? Please..!"

She held out her hand, palm facing up. The Shadow stared at her for a second that seemed to stretch into an hour.

Then dark clouds billowed out from above her head. The small patch of grass surrounding her burst outward at the same rate, turning the entire throne room into an empty, grey graveyard as creepers raced up the high walls. Kasumi clenched her fists as the Shadow cackled again.

But just as before, there was no humor in the sound.

" _'You're still here for me,' are you? For how long?!_ " She raised her arms forward and seven tombstones burst out of the ground in an arc behind the seven intruders into her Palace. " _You'll only leave me, just like all the others! You're all just faces to haunt me in the future, aren't you? AREN'T YOU?!_ " She screamed and more giant teardrops fell from her eyes and crashed into the grass before Kasumi, splashing her shoes. " _Now, for the last time: leave. Me. ALONE!_ "

She shrieked once more and the child advanced, taking one shambling step after another.

"Mona." Her father's voice was calm - genuinely calm - this time. "Did Violet damage it at all?"

The cat peered at the lumbering child for a moment, then shook his head. "Only a little. She - " he swallowed " - that _thing_ resists Bless attacks, I'm afraid."

"I see."

Joker stepped forward and narrowed his eyes. The child drew closer, then tripped and fell. Instead of trying to get up again though, it instead starting walking on all fours - its ankles and wrists. Kasumi winced as she bounded towards them on her limbs, her broken feet and hands trailing through the oily grass behind it with each leap. In no time at all it was in attacking range. It jumped into the air somehow, the arc of its leap leading it directly towards her father's chest...

"Dad!"

"This'll do the trick."

He still sounded so calm as he snapped his fingers. Just like that a familiar red figure exploded into being behind him and sent a wave of black energy at the child. Time seemed to freeze as the attack made contact, then resumed as it was shot back, the attack tearing its body away even as it sailed through the air, colliding with its mother's stomach as a small clump of black flesh, but it too turned to black smoke before it could slide off of her. Kubo-sensei screamed, but not before Kasumi heard her mutter a soft "...thanks, Goro."

" _MY CHILD! YOU KILLED MY MIZUKI! HOW DARE YOU!_ "

"That wasn't your child!" Joker yelled back. "As a fellow parent, I feel your pain, but you need to _move on_! You think Mizuki, your husband, brother, parents...any of the people you've lost would want to see you like this?"

" _SHUT UP! How could you know what they would want? Did you raise Mizuki? Did you marry my husband, or live in my house? DON'T ACT LIKE YOU'RE BETTER THAN ME!_ "

"He isn't!" Kasumi spoke up once more. "None of us are! Why can't you understand us?"

"Please listen to us!" Hinata joined her. "We're still here for you, just _give us a chance_!"

" _You think I haven't given chances before? It's why I got married, it's why I had a child! And..._ and _..._ "

She let out the loudest shriek yet. The seven of them clamped their ears shut, but the force of her will still shook them to their bones. The world around them shuddered and Kasumi heard the unmistakeable cracking of the walls around them. Once the shriek ended she looked up to see the Shadow's eyes bloodier than ever, more huge, bulging veins crisscrossing her distorted face, a sharp tongue flicking the air before her. Kasumi opened her mouth to speak, only for her father to place a hand on her shoulder.

"At this point we'd just be going around in circles," he muttered. "Now we just need to go all out, you understand? Remember, her real self won't be able to heal as long as her Shadow's like this."

"I..." she paused, then nodded. "Yes. I understand."

"Then give us our orders, Ace!"

She smiled. "Thanks, Dad." She faced the snarling Shadow and raised her hand, her thumb and middle finger pressed together. "Everyone! Please, give me everything you've got!"

"That's my girl! Raoul!"

"Ella!"

"Diego!"

"Anne!"

"William!"

"Celestine!"

"Everyone..." Kasumi beamed at the six figures surrounding her and faced forward once more. "Genevieve!"

Her partner appeared in the middle of them all. She saw her father step forward to join her and raise his own hand.

"Ready, Ace?"

"Ready, Joker!"

"Great! It's Showti - "

"The Show's Over!"

Ren blinked as his daughter overtook him, missing his chance to snap his fingers in time with her. But Raoul didn't make the same mistake, sending giant claws of Cursed magic sailing towards his daughter's teacher accompanied by a series of spinning kicks, a beam of electricity that made the hair on his arms stand on end, a wave of fire, a small hurricane, a barrage of giant bullets...and an intense _blast_ of holy light.

The Shadow Kubo screamed as the multi-colored assault crashed into her, her body leaning back from the force of the attack, held upright only by her fixed stomach. She continued to shriek, each of her seven voices rising and lowering in pitch one after another, letting them hear each member of her family clearly for the first time as her arms flailed. Ren turned to his side and saw Kasumi glaring at her, her jaw set. Even when the attack subsided and her Sensei leaned forward once more, her body burned down to the bone, his daughter kept her eyes forward even as her legs trembled.

He was so proud of her.

* * *

Kubo-sensei's Shadow let out one final wail, her voice finally alone, and disappeared into a mass of black smoke. Kasumi started and heard Hinata yell, but the smoke started to shrink as if it were being sucked into the ground. The dark clouds above and grass beneath them followed, all narrowing in on an a single point and disappearing altogether. The smoke vanished a moment later, revealing their Sensei once more. Her veil was gone, but otherwise her outfit was just as they remembered from her entrance. Her features had also returned to the simple radiance that Kasumi had always admired.

The Shadow Kubo took a step forward. Then exhaustion exploded onto her expression and her leg trembled. She fell, but her students ran forward and caught her before she hit the ground, lowering her to her knees. She let out a weak chuckle and let go of them. The teens stepped back and she sat on her haunches, watching as the other five drew near. She laughed a second time, louder this time, and held out her hand. The third small light of the day flashed before their eyes and the hand cuffs returned, floating above her open palm for a second before drifting forward through the air. Kasumi caught them by their chain, but the manacles remained in the air. She eyed it, then let go so she could drop to one knee.

"Sensei..?"

"You...you won." She smiled. "You were so sweet the day we met, but I always knew you were a troublemaker."

Kasumi scratched her cheek. "I must have gotten it from my parents."

"I can tell," Kubo-sensei glanced at them. "But to think they seemed so down to earth when we met in the real world. Unlike Sakamoto-chan's parents, of course."

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?!" Skull beat his club against his palm, only for his wife and daughter to shush him. Kasumi and Kubo-sensei laughed.

"Just that all of the Sakamotos seemed to be full of life, I assure you." Sensei chuckled once more...but then her smile died down and she looked to her feet. "I envied you, to be honest. You were just like my family, back when they..."

"Sensei..." Hinata got on her knees and held one of her hands between both of her own.

"Would you like to talk about it, Sensei?" asked Kasumi. The Shadow considered her for a moment, then glanced at Hinata and the five onlookers in turn before flashing them another tired smile.

"Well, after everything that just happened, I owe you that much, don't I?" Yet another weak chuckle. A sigh.

Then she began.

"My mother's side of the family had a genetic disorder," she sighed. "To be honest, it was a miracle she survived as long as she did, but for some reason...she didn't pass it onto me." She sniffed. "Perhaps it was tied to a recessive gene or I was just lucky...I was so young when my brother and I were diagnosed and I...just _couldn't_ bring myself to look up my file after..." she chuckled yet again, but the humor was gone once more. "Well, whatever luck had blessed my mother and I took its toll on my brother: he died before we even started high school..." another sad laugh as she wiped her eyes dry. "You know...he actually said that. I still remember clear as day what he told me: 'If I'm dying early so you can live a full life, I'm happy'." She swallowed.

"Sensei..."

"That's not right at all!" Hinata covered her mouth at her own outburst, but Sensei just smiled.

"It's fine. Well, my grandmother died of old age a year later and my mother's time ran out two years after that. And my father...heh. I guess he was going through what I am right now: I never thought of it that way. Looking back on it now, I think he died alongside her that day. He hung himself right after I graduated, but that was just his body catching up, wasn't it? It was nothing more than a formality..."

"Kubo-san, that's horrible!" Violet spoke through a cupped mouth. Kasumi saw the horrified expressions on Morgana and their other parents' faces too. She didn't need to check to know she and Hinata would look the same.

"I'm sorry. I...don't know what I'm saying. I suppose I always resented him for that. I wanted him to live on, both for himself and for me...heh. I feel like such a hypocrite right now..."

"Sensei, it's fine, really."

"Yeah, Kasumi's dad told us all about how your desires have been distorted, none of this is your fault!"

"Isn't it..?" She looked at the blonde, her eyes wide for a moment, then shook her head. "No, I...I don't want to take the easy way out anymore. I...where was I? Ah, yes: I started teaching a few years after that and...I was happy. Everything hurt, but...just as you said before, Amamiya-san," she gave Joker a quick glance, "I had friends. I loved my work. And then..." She smiled - her first proper smile that day. "I met _him_. We were in the supermarket and he spilled a carton of milk over me, if you can believe it!" She giggled. "Luckily I lived nearby so he helped me get my shopping there so I could clean up quickly, but he was so sweet about it that I asked if we could exchange numbers and before I knew it a year had passed and he was on his knee with a ring in his hands!" She touched one of her pink cheeks. "It was magical! We got married soon after and for the first time in my life since I lost my family I felt truly at peace. And then a year later...we had my little Mizuki..."

"She wasn't in the museum..."

Hinata had said it aloud, but Kasumi had been thinking it since the child first appeared. At the very least, it would have warned them about the sixth coffin.

"I can guess why..." said Panther. The other parents nodded at once. The teens exchanged confused looks and turned back to the teacher, who was waiting for them with a sad smile.

"Mizuki was born with...complications," she said after a pause. "You see, her lungs hadn't fully developed so...well, she was in and out of the hospital a lot." She tried to smile and failed just as quickly. "And that was when my husband..." This time she did smile - with a self-deprecating snort. "Remember what I said before about me being lucky to be alive for so long? I was still paying for it, it seemed. It's the only thing that can explain what happened that year." She sighed.

"Sensei..." Kasumi took her teacher's free hand into her own just as Hinata had, but the older woman just shook her head.

"It's fine. Maybe saying this all aloud will do me some good. I had just brought Mizuki back from another check-up. I'd been stuck in traffic because of a protest so we got back late in the evening, which made her restless and cry non-stop, I was tired...I just asked Daichi to buy some milk, that's all I wanted! And..." she sighed. "It's so absurd. It was pure bad luck. He never came home that night..."

A pause. The humans and Morgana looked at each other as the Shadow steadied her shallow breaths.

"It was only midday the next morning that I learned that...I learned that..!" Her voice caught in her throat. Before Kasumi could say anything, she pulled her hand free of hers so she could mime being stabbed in the chest.

"Sensei..."

"It was part of the same protests that had made me late," she muttered. Another dead laugh. "It had spread to that area too in the time it had taken for me to ask him to go out and...some of those _stupid_ men had brought weapons..." She took her other hand out of Hinata's and pressed them both to her face. "It wasn't fair! He hadn't even done anything to them, they just wanted someone to take their anger out on!"

The girls exchanged glances.

"Do you know who did it?" It was her father again. "Did they get arrested?"

Kubo-sensei nodded, letting her hands fall once more. The girls took them at once, Kasumi adjusting herself so that she was sitting on her knees too. "Thankfully. Someone had seen it happen from afar and recognized one of the thugs. A cowardly thug at that. According to the police he ratted out his friends as soon as they arrested him." Even as a monster she hadn't had that much venom in her voice, but now her words were drenched in it. "They should have been caught sooner, but...at least there was justice done. I didn't have to worry about that." Her scowl collapsed. "But...Mizuki..."

Kasumi tensed. Even without looking she knew the other six had too.

"It's a simple story after that, honestly. One day I took her into hospital for a check up and the doctor took her from me and...and she never came back." She took a long, rapsing breath. "Her time had run out apparently, just as it had for my brother and the other women in my life." Another dead laugh. "They told me she started choking when they were giving her an injection and...that was that. To this day I'm still not sure if I should be happy or sad I wasn't there to see my child's final moments. Did you know that 'Kubo' can mean 'to protect for a long time'?"

The girls shook their heads.

"Ha..!" She sighed. "I didn't do a good job of that, did I? Everyone..." She looked at the ground and shook her head. All was quiet for a few fleeting seconds.

"Wait," Skull broke the silence as he scratched the back of his head. "You said it happened _while_ she was getting an injection? You're sure it - "

"It wasn't the hospital's fault," she shook her head. "There was an investigation into her treatment that day and the staff's hands were clean. It...it really was just Mizuki's time, I suppose." She sighed. "After that, I moved here. I just wanted to get as far away from everything as possible, but the only school that would accept teachers on such short notice turned out to be one town over from where I grew up. Funny how things play out sometimes, isn't it?" She tried to smile and failed yet again. "This factory though..." she looked around the throne room "it shut down after my father died and...I hated that seeing it reminded me of him, but at the same time...I really was happy here." She took her hand out of Kasumi's once more to stroke the thick carpet beneath them. "And seeing you two exploring here last year? Seeing people other than myself enjoying something my family had left behind...it made me feel fulfilled for the first time since Mizuki was born, so...thank you. Thank you both."

She let go of Hinata as well, then pulled both girls into a hug that they reciprocated after a shared moment of surprise behind her back. They held it for a full minute before letting go of one another.

The trio exchanged glances for a few moments more before Kasumi turned around.

"So...what now?"

"Well," she had been looking at her parents but Morgana was the one who answered. "Kubo-san's Shadow needs to reunite with her true self for the change of heart to work, and we need to take her Treasure out of here to trigger it in the first place."

"I'm afraid you won't remember any of this though, Kubo-san." Joker took a knee next to his daughter. "So you'll need to talk her through all of this again, Ace."

"Okay, I...what?" Her jaw dropped.

"What's wrong? You have a real flair for this, kiddo." He patted her on the shoulder, but her cheeks just turned red.

"I...I just prompted her, she was the one who did the talking! I..." she froze as he started to chuckle, pouting by the time the sound died out.

"Sometimes that's all you need. Still..." he turned back to the faintly-smiling Shadow. "You said you remember me. Do you remember what I do for a living?"

"Yes. You study psychology, correct?"

"That's right." He nodded. "But I got my start as a therapist and still see patients from time to time. I'll give Kasumi one of my business cards tomorrow; do you think you'd be willing to book an appointment if she passes it on to you?"

The Shadow thought for a moment. "I...maybe not right away, but..." she nodded "yes. After today, I...I think the other me would."

"I'm glad to hear it. I know there are stigmas surrounding therapy, but please: don't let it keep you from coming to see me."

She smiled. "I'll make sure she understands. So, you'll be giving the other me that card I assume, Kasumi?"

"Of course!" The black-haired teen grinned, her smile clear once more.

"Then I look forward to it." The Shadow let out a soft, yet happy sigh. As if on cue, a soft white light surrounded her. Hinata yelped, but their teacher just smiled, her eyes full of life once more. "Thank you, Kasumi. Hinata." She looked over the other five. "Thank you, everyone. I'm going now. I leave my Treasure in your capable hands."

The light covered her entire form before narrowing into a beam that grew thinner and thinner the taller it grew...until it vanished altogether. Her hand cuffs fell to the ground at the same time, the thud muted by the red carpet.

...then the ground began to shake. Kasumi looked around and saw the cracks on the walls spread and widen.

"Uh..." She grabbed the chain once more and stood, but the ground shuddered again - harder this time - and she had to slide one of her feet out to stay upright. "Dad?!"

"Oh, right." Somehow Joker remained calm, even as bricks began to fall around them one after another. "I knew we'd forgotten to mention something."

"Amamiya-san?!"

"Remember what we said about Treasures being the root of a Palace?" At least Morgana seemed appropriately concerned. "What do you think happens when we take it out?"

"It... _collapses?!_ "

"Got it in one, Ace! You're just as clever as your father!"

"Mona-chan! Not now!" Kasumi stomped her foot and would have fallen as a result from the following tremor had an equally cross Hinata not grabbed her shoulder.

"Can we just get out already?!" she followed the save by yelling.

If only she hadn't done so so close to Kasumi's ear...

* * *

Despite the girls' panic, the seven got out with plenty of time to spare. Kasumi hated to admit that maybe her father's lack of concern was well-founded.

" _The destination has been deleted._ "

She jumped at the artificial sound and dug a hand into her pocket to pull out the source. Her phone was already open to the MetaNav's bookmarks page - though now it was empty.

"That means we did it."

She jumped and whirled around to see her mother leaning over her shoulder.

"M - Mom!"

"Hmm, what's wrong?" She adjusted her square glasses. "Isn't that what you were going to ask?"

"Well... _yes_ , but still! You scared me!"

Her mother giggled, her loose red hair shaking slightly with her movements. Kasumi pouted and turned to the rest of the group, only for Hinata to point at her other hand.

"Hey, what's that?"

She looked down. Where there had been a pair of thick hand cuffs was now a simple sheet of paper. She read it.

And shuddered.

Her father held out a hand and she gave it to him without any complaints. He looked it over and nodded to himself.

"Mizuki's death certificate," he murmured. "According to this she passed a bit over 17 months ago."

"17 months?" Skull - no, here he was Sakamoto-san - scratched his black hair once more. "No offence to your teacher, but why is she only like this 17 months after...you know - "

"Ryuji!" His wife punched his arm and he recoiled.

"What? It was a serious question!"

"Girls," Kasumi's own father interrupted them, his eyes on the teens. "I assume Kubo-san started acting strangely five months ago?"

"Um...I'd say so, yeah...wait - "

"Mmhm." He nodded. "If I had to guess I'd say the anniversary of Mizuki's death made her relapse. I've seen it happen before, I'm afraid: sometimes all it takes is one bad day or memory for someone to undo years of progress battling their inner demons: I'd imagine being reminded of your lost child would fit the bill quite nicely. That said..." he glanced at the warehouse they were still standing outside. "I wouldn't be surprised if she'd had a Palace before that point. Given she was grieving her other family members too, it's possible she's had it for years."

"Like Doc?"

"Yeah..." He nodded and offered the certificate back to Kasumi. She reached her hand out for it, but took it back just as he leaned in to pass it over. He paused, then simply nodded a second time and folded it over before tucking it into his pocket. "But all that matters is that now it's destroyed... Which brings us to the big question!"

He looked both girls in the eye and beamed. They exchanged confused glances and looked around, only to see the others smiling just as wide and circling them. Even Morgana - back in his cat form - seemed giddy too.

"Um...Mona? Mom, Dad..?"

"We're still not sure if you got the app from one of us or Morgana," said Hinata's father. "But Ren told us you secured a route to the Treasure and learned how to use Safe Rooms and all that other junk before you even knew what you were doing. That's crazy! Hinata, it took your mom and I months to figure everything out - and even then we kept getting the smaller cra - I mean, stuff - wrong!"

"Well, we weren't exactly the smartest Thieves, you know..." mumbled the mom in question, though still loud enough for them to hear.

"Yeah, but still! Doesn't that just mean our little girl's already way cleverer than we'll ever be? Oh! Before I forget, just...don't tell Yuta about this, alright? Or your Grandma? He'd go ballistic and she'd kill me on the spot..." he shuddered. Hinata giggled.

"Same for my parents," said Kasumi's mother. "You can tell Sojiro-san if there's an emergency though, but only if you don't mind him turning your father into next day's curry."

"Woah! Sumire, you didn't need to get so graphic..." Her father rubbed the back of his neck, but more importantly...

"Wait, Boss-san knows you about you guys being Phantom Thieves?"

Her father was still rubbing the back of his neck, but now he was laughing.

"Heh. That is a long, long, _long_ story...but it also brings us to the main topic." He cleared his throat and all five of their seniors fixed them with their bright smiles yet again. "As Ryuji said, you two are much, _much_ quicker studies than the rest of us. And if the Metaverse is back in full swing, we need someone young and spry to protect it. The whole team's getting on years, you know."

The other four mock-glared at him for a moment.

"Wait - " Kasumi raised an eyebrow. "The 'whole team'? You make it sound like there are more of you..."

"Because there are! And I can't wait for you to meet them!" He smirked at what she could only imagine was an inside joke and the other four followed suit. "But before that..."

He held out his hand, poised for a handshake.

"...how would you two like to lead the Phantom Thieves into a new generation?"

* * *

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A/N: This is the longest one-shot I've ever written and I wanted to try a different writing style with it. The core outline has been in my head ever since I sat down to write Return (Ryuji having a kid at the time is why his mother is "having the time of her life" in that story), but reading Lotus, Violet and Cherry Blossoms (specifically Chapter 75) motivated me to finally sit down and write it ([I highly recommend you read it too](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24211450/chapters/58325074), but given how popular it is you likely already have). I even worked in a reference to it here!

With regards to this story though, I wanted Kasumi's first Palace to be equal and opposite to Ren's: he went into a teacher's castle because he was a terrible human being who thought the world of himself and looked down on those around him. Here, Kasumi also enters a teacher's castle, but this one thinks the world of those around her and looks down on herself instead. As for the darker themes, I knew I wanted Kubo to be suffering from self-neglect, but as I planned the story out I realized I needed to _explain_ that neglect and - while I ultimately chose not to have Kubo explain her family's genetic disorder in more detail - as I started writing I realized I needed to _show_ how she felt too. I hope this was okay for you.

As with my P5R Golden story, here's some background information about my OC elements!

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Character Profiles:

Kasumi:

Her Thief outfit strongly resembles that of [Sir Aaron's from the eighth Pokemon movie](https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Sir_Aaron). Just swap the blue gloves for solid red ones, change the boots and greys of his outfit to black and the blue shirt to grey, ditch the cape and make the rim of his hat uniform and that's essentially how I see her. In terms of weapons she uses a rapier like her mother and a pistol like her father. Her Persona, Genevieve, [is Arsene Lupin's daughter from the novel 813](https://www.coolfrenchcomics.com/arsenelupintimeline.htm). Genevieve admittedly doesn't do much in the book beyond being really sweet, so I kept the allusion to her seeming delicate while making her battle-capable, for both Kasumi's sake and to evoke Cendrillon also being a "Destinyland Princess" capable of fighting her own battles: another reference to her mother. She uses Bless attacks to act as a compromise between Arsene and Cendrillon: Arsene has some Physical moves but is best known for using magic (Curse) while Cendrillon has some Bless moves but is best known for her Physical skills: despite technically doubling up on Bless, I felt this was a good way to go for her (and again, Sumire is mostly a Physical fighter so I feel everything still works out). Her current signature move - where Genevieve herself turns into a giant sphere of Bless energy - is named _Shining Aura_.

The other reason I crafted Genevieve this was is because Kasumi's personality is also a mix of her parents'. She has her father's showmanship and confidence, but also her mother's compassion and composure, so a Persona that also blended their traits was a perfect fit! For the record, Lupin has a named son with a unisex name, Jean that I also considered, but his story is one of fighting against his father. Still, I figured (s)he would make a good candidate for her third-tier Persona after Kasumi's own year as a Phantom Thief :)

Oh, and as for whether she inherited her father's Wild Card or not: it's such a shame she didn't know about negotiations before getting caught and things moved too quickly after for anyone to teach her during the heist prep or the heist itself. A shame indeed...

Hinata:

Hinata's outfit is admittedly simple by comparison, but I feel that fits her better than something flashy would: if you can imagine Skull's outfit with an unzipped jacket, that's what she wears. I know her wearing brass knuckles gives the impression that Makoto is her mother and I apologize for the misdirection, but fisticuffs were the only other "brute force" weapon I could think of that wasn't just a club or mace as her father uses. Her firearm of choice is also inspired by him: a sawn-off shotgun. Her Persona is [Anne Bonny, a female pirate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Bonny). I wanted a female pirate to mimic William/ Kidd and a famous one with a near identical name to her mother? It was a match made in heaven! Anne specializes in Gun attacks. Unfortunately Kidd and Carmen don't have any skill overlap, so I chose an Element I felt matched the "high energy" of theirs (Electric and Fire respectively). As mentioned in the story, her signature move is _Bullet Volley_ : a "to-the-point" move of simply unloading as many bullets as possible from both of her pistols as quickly as possible.

You may have already guessed both from the above paragraph and the story at large, but personality and interests-wise she takes after her father. On the other hand, Yuta (who turned 6 about a month before this story) is just like Ann. I see him following a similar career path too, only he'd be more interested in _taking_ pictures of people or animals than being _taken_ in pictures. Hinata needed to be boisterous to give Kasumi someone to play off of (at least in my head) but swapping the personalities of the parents to their kids of the opposite gender was interesting (and a bit funny) to me. They both have their Mom's hair and Dad's eyes, though.

Also, Kasumi is 16 and Hinata is 17. I don't think Ryuji ever thought a kid of his would be someone's senpai of choice, but the girls have known each other since Kasumi was born so they don't really see themselves that way (unless Kasumi wants to tease her). What do they _actually_ see themselves as? Well, you can make your own minds up about that~

Shadows:

The Shadow the girls face in the prologue is Hecatoncheires, who Resists Gun and is weak to Bless, which made it perfect for that scene. Not as perfect as the guardian of the third Will Seed though: Barong. I wanted a Persona of a similar level to the former (42) that Resisted Gun and Bless and found one who not only nullified Bless entirely but was _Weak to Curse_! I couldn't have asked for a better choice for the moment! Even though she was out of her depth at the time, we got to see Kasumi's Critical Hit in that fight: stabbing the foe and shooting it three times at point-blank range, then tearing the sword out to damage and hopefully maim it further. His level is higher than I would have liked (52) but he was also a mini-boss, so I hope his inclusion was justified.

Shadow Kubo:

Her Shadow form is just herself, a woman in her late 30s, in a traditional mourning dress complete with veil. Combat-wise, she's a puzzle boss like Okumura/ P5R!Madarame: someone who is defenceless after losing her bodyguards - even though she wants to be imposing in this form, I feel it's still a nice parallel with her real world self who also pretends to be "normal"/ "invincible" by hiding behind a facade. Appearance-wise I chose to make her boss form a mix between purely monstrous (e.g. Kamoshida) and near identical to her Shadow form (Shido). I settled on making her a distorted giant (albeit one with no legs) to make her seem imposing but still human enough to carry out a full conversation with without any of the Thieves/ Thieves-to-be feeling too out of sorts...but of course she's still a monster, hence the stench when she leans in. I hope her Palace being a castle that was later turned into an incomplete exhibit about how her life used to be also captures her past well.

As for affinities, like most bosses she herself is neutral to all of them, while her family members were neutral to every Element save their one weakness apiece. The group of three never discovered them, but Kubo's mother and father were weak to Fire and Electric respectively: considering Ryuji and Ann reminded Kubo of her own parents but her cognition of them was so warped, portraying the similarity she saw in them in a perverse way such as this made sense to me. As for Mizuki, she was weak to Curse. Ren identified this with Sleuthing Mastery, an ability he gains from Akechi's Confidant in Royal (hence the "thanks, Goro").

**Author's Note:**

> I'm pretty sure I've missed a few things, so please feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer! Thank you all so so much for reading this, I hope you liked the story! As with the questions, please let me know what you thought of it and of any way I could improve this and my skills overall! Thank you all again, and take care!


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